


Unfit Ruler

by WolfFromMars



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Empire AU, F/M, Mutual Pinning, Obliviousness, alternative universe, pinning, random timelords generals, this was meant to be dark but i never got around to finish it so
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-09
Updated: 2018-10-24
Packaged: 2019-03-29 05:42:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13920585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WolfFromMars/pseuds/WolfFromMars
Summary: The empire of Gallifrey expands its tendrils all across the universe, being the most important executive organ known across the galaxies.Since the Time War, there has been one man ruling it, sometimes more unfair than others, but never cruel or cowardly.This man called himself The Doctor.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Ok so  
> This wasn't meant to end like that cause it's not really an ending.  
> But it works!  
> So I'll wait and see how you guys like this and then let's see if I get Inspired (tm) to write the rest of it.  
> Enjoy

The empire of Gallifrey expands its tendrils all across the universe, being the most important executive organ known across the galaxies.  
Since the Time War, there has been one man ruling it, sometimes more unfair than others, but never cruel or cowardly.  
This man called himself The Doctor.  
\---  
Clara Oswald should consider herself a lucky woman. Not all his companions stayed longer enough to see him regenerate.  
The man she had known died and a new man surged from the ashes. It was a traumatic experience for everyone involved.  
And for her, specially.  
Her heart ached all by itself, for she had fallen in love with that impossible man who was in turn so fascinated by her.  
At first, she had quivered in fear, alone in her bedroom, waiting for the day he'd get bored and move on to the next companion, once his curiosity was sated.  
But that day didn't come. Instead, she got to know him. That babyfaced leader of one of the greater empires of history.  
He told her once that he didn't use to be like that. That he travelled, a free spirit, his old world forgotten, going on adventures every single day.  
And then he talked about the war. She was afraid of him, then. When his eyes screamed "run, run fast, I am angry and I will never stop."  
There was always that beast, hidden under the velvet of his kind manners. And her fear of him never died.  
Until the regeneration day.  
That day, he stared at her, in total disbelief, his eyes open, drinking her in like he was a thirsty man in a desert.  
She knew that timelords had this... Vulnerability. They imprinted, like a duckling (don't ever compare timelords with ducks though, they'll get unreasonably mad), born anew and lost in a confusing, cruel world.  
But nothing could have prepared her for this.  
Then his generals reclaimed his attention and the moment was shattered.  
But not forgotten.  
\---  
The duty of a companion is, according to the Doctor, to keep him company. And, according to the other companions, to reel him in. Ground him. Remind him he's not so high above everyone else.  
This new Doctor seemed to need a lot of that. He was rude, mean and disconsiderate.  
It seemed like the velvet had banished, but underneath wasn't the beast Clara had always feared.  
Raw and unpredictable, yes, but not savage and out of control.  
It was interesting to watch, his trusty generals testing the ground under their feet when it came to this new man.  
When she asked around, people said he reminded them of the Doctor he was before the War. Not so... Guarded all the time.  
Clara couldn't phantom for her life why this regeneration was different, but she wasn't sure how she felt about the change.  
The day she made up her mind was the day a kid snuck into the palace.  
The Doctor had always been kind to children, and this regeneration was no different. Until he smiled.  
You see, the previous Doctor was silly, but always on purpose. When this one smiled, he unintentionally pulled up a weird face that could be seen as maleficent. Clara was secretly fond of it. Unlike this kid, apparently, because the moment he saw it, he started crying.  
The Doctor panicked.  
And Clara laughed.  
His pointy eyebrows turned at her, freezing her on the spot.  
"Stop laughing, I think I broke him. How am I going to explain it to his parents?"  
And that send her into another laughing fit.  
\---  
Can you fall in love with the same person twice? Or maybe she just went deeper. It definitely felt like that.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second part of this!  
> You may get a third (in 2020 at the rate i write) or not! Who knows? Not me!

She didn’t fantasize. She couldn’t dothat. She was his Companion, and yes it was an important position but it wasn’t-

No matter how much she dreamed of it, he wasn’t courting her when he offered her flowers and dressed nice for their dinners together and how-

How he stared at her, almost like that first time this face had seen her, but never as unguarded.

 

Because now there were people around them, usually.

 

And if she dwelled too much in the few moments they were completely alone, she feared she wouldn’t be able to go back in public ever again.

 

She didn’t fantasize about that either. About just kidnapping him, throwing him in an stolen TARDIS and running away. She’d just hold him tight and when he asked her what was wrong, she’d say she needed him. Which wasn’t a lie.

 

And he’d stay. He always did when she asked nicely.

 

No, she didn’t fantasize at all.

 

She didn’t like those terms anyway. The child who could have “ _fantasized_ ” without shame burned at the same time her family did, at the borders of the empire.

 

The Companions were usually from the borders and didn’t have pretty lives to get back to when they were selected by the Doctor.

 

It was said that he needed those who had suffered to understand his pain.

 

That was stupid, they were at war. Casualties never stopped happening.

 

And they were always at war at the borders.

 

She brought this up. Once.

 

He retired for the night and didn’t call her the next morning.

 

Clara rehearsed how she’d ask for forgiveness time and time again in front of a mirror but when he entered in her rooms unannounced, he asked her.

 

“Clara, be my pal, tell me. Am I a good man?”

 

And she answered the best she could.

 

And it tore her heart to see the pain in this man who she couldn’t help but love.  
So she never mentioned it again.

 

When they first took her to see the Doctor, she had asked if she was a hostage.

 

The Doctor laughed back then. She should have been offended, but like everyone else in the empire, she let herself be tricked by his young face and charm.

 

Now she truly felt like a hostage. But she was her own jailer. And her heart-

 

Her heart was the cage.  
\---

 

The Doctor had a spouse, before the war. They had been forgotten.

 

Then he fell in love with one of his companions. Rose Tyler. A human from the border, like the rest.

Then he had a wife.

 

Both relationships had ended by the time he met Clara.

 

He had also had lovers. Countless lovers. With this regeneration, he was more reserved, but he still was expected to “blow off steam”.

 

Clara told herself that it was normal. In the incredibly long lives the timelords had, it was basically the norm to have more than one romantic partner.

 

He hadn’t picked a new lover yet, however. She hoped he never did, suspended in a state of uncertainty, in which she knew it was coming but she would never have to deal with the realness of it. She knew she would react badly.

 

She knew it would crush her from the inside.

 

And she felt guilty. Like a child watching another girl with a doll that she knew would never belong to her.

 

One night, the Doctor was at her door.

 

He usually didn’t bother her after her bedtime, and especially after a night of partying as tonight had been.

 

He took off his tie, from the uniform he wore to social events, instead of the royal robes of the Timelord Victorious.

 

Clara raised her head from the book she was reading, an question in her eye.  
The Doctor didn’t meet her gaze.

 

He tumbled onwards, falling next to her in bed. Her own bed.

 

He reeked of alcohol, because no matter how fancy the timelords may be, even the most high standing men and women wanted nothing but to forget their worries and have fun for a while.

 

“I’m sick,” he told her. That made her smile.  
“Nope. You’re wasted, though.” She put her book away, laying down next to him, not close enough that the action could be described as cuddling but it made Clara’s heart a bit happier.

 

He looked at her then.

 

“I’m not. You’re the one wh’s wast’d, all splitting in two. Stop moving for just a second!”

 

“I’m perfectly still, thank you very much.” Her smile grew, a snicker coming out of her mouth.

 

He seemed captivated by that sound.

 

“Oh Clara. Clara, Clara, Clara, Clara. My Clara.”

 

A knot made itself at home in her throat.

 

Would she be so bold?

 

“My Doctor.”

 

She was.

 

“I-“ He couldn’t find the words. He raised a hand to her face. “It’s so soft. I don’t have a soft face anymore. It’s all scratchy.”

 

“I noticed.”

 

“How?” He seemed honestly curious. “You never touch my face anymore.”

 

It was true she used to touch him more often in his last regeneration. She swallowed.

 

“I didn’t think you’d like to be touched anymore.”

 

He grimaced, as if she had punched him.

 

That expression of hurt pained her more than anything, so she quickly raised a hand to his cheek.

 

They formed an odd mirrored image, then. His hand, lax, laying against the bed, barely grazing her face, and hers, a thumb going over his unshaven face.

“You were right, it’s very scratchy.”

 

He released a breath that could have sounded like laughter if you paid close attention. Clara did.

 

His breath was hot when he turned his face towards her hand, closing his eyes while he planted a kiss with his thin lips on her palm.

 

Clara’s breath hitched. He opened his eyes and they had lost their softness from before.

 

They were focused on her in a way that made her feel dizzy. He raised his other hand to capture hers against his skin.

 

“You’re too good to me, Clara Oswald. Too good.”

He closed his eyes then, falling asleep almost instantly.

Clara spent the rest of her night awake.


End file.
